Lake County - Calumet Twp tax problems

The Indiana DLGF is becoming very adroit at tracking which townships and counties are getting back to scheduled tax bills, and which are continuing to fall woefully behind. In many parts of the state, counties are ahead of schedule, not locally.

Calumet Twp., late tax bills tied:

A state official is warning Lake County residents aredoomed to late tax bills and expensive borrowing again in 2010unless Calumet Township Assessor Booker Blumenburg improves his performance.

Timothy J. Rushenberg, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, wrote Blumenburg Monday, 'because of your office's untimely and error-riddled work, Lake County is in jeopardy of yet another year of late billing.'

Blumenburg shot back Monday, 'It seems to me the DLGF is becoming a political organization.'

He accused Republican state officials and Nexus Group, an Indianapolis-based consulting firm, of smearing him. 'They are trying to accomplish through the DLGF what they couldn't accomplish through the referendum,' Blumenburg said.

Sadly Porter, Lake and LaPorte Counties have three of the worst on-time records in the entire state for assessing, trending, certifying and getting bills out on time. I can't help but think that we can then surmise something of the politics surrounding these three counties. What would that be?